More awards for Penn State's Barkley

By Chris Morelli on December 07, 2017

UNIVERSITY PARK – The broken record continues to play, but Penn State fans don’t mind one bit.

Saquon Barkley picked up another honor on Thursday. This one came from Sports Illustrated, which selected him as first-team all-purpose talent and a second-team running back. Beating Barkley out for the top running back slots were Bryce Love of Stanford and Rashaad Penny of San Diego State.

SI had an explanation for being on the first-team in one category, but not in the other.

“Barkley's season-long rushing numbers were reined in by defenses dead-set on avoiding getting gashed on the ground, but he remained a unique weapon in the passing game (594 receiving yards) and took two opening kickoffs back for touchdowns in 2017,” said the article, which appears on SI.com.

Barkley is currently in Atlanta for The Home Depot College Football Awards show, which is tonight. There, he is nominated for the Maxwell Award and the Doak Walker Award. The Maxwell Award is given to the best overall player in College Football. The Doak Walker Award is given to the nation’s best running back.

Penn State (10-2) will face Washington (10-2) in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., on Dec. 30. It’s expected that the game will be Barkley’s last as a Nittany Lion. And although it seems likely that Barkley will declare for the NFL Draft, he isn’t tipping his hand.

He spoke with the website Land of 10 and had this to say:

“I’m definitely going to sit down with my family and just think about life, probably take a little break and see what my family thinks, talk to my coaches and definitely talk to my teammates,” Barkley told Land of 10. “I’ll have my decision made then.”

UPDATE: This afternoon, Barkley won his second Chicago Tribune Silver Football award, given to the league’s best player. He is the fifth player since the award’s inception in 1924 to claim the honor twice, joining the elite list of Minnesota’s Paul Giel (1952-53), Ohio State’s Archie Griffin (1973-74), Indiana’s Anthony Thompson (1988-89) and Ohio State’s Braxton Miller (2012-13).